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Tuesday, February 23, 2010

In our recent UberHarvest, Iskashitaa partnered with The Community Food Bank (CFB), the University of Arizona Returned PeaceCorps Volunteer Fellows program and the U of A Blue Chip Program, leadership education club. Neighbors from Sunset Ridge Neighborhood, near Orange Grove and Oracle arranged for us to harvest 86 trees. Four hundred-eighty pounds of tangelos, tangerines, lemons and a few grapefruit went to Isakshitaa refugees and the rest was donated to Tucson’s Food Bank. Thank you Susan Brown for helping out at this harvest with refugees from Burundi, Somalia, Congo, Bhutan and the Sudan!

Monday, February 22, 2010

Iskashitaa is looking for volunteers who can dedicate a couple hours of their week to harvest fruit from Tucson’s backyards alongside refugees. We have harvest sites all over the city, and can set up harvests around your schedule. Harvesting is a great activity for groups and individuals, young and the young-at-heart. You can enjoy the sunshine and mild spring temperatures while getting some exercise. Give us a few hours of your week, and help feed hundreds of families. If you are interested, please contact us at (520) 440-0100.

What was Walid Gamarelanbia, a refugee from Sudan, doing, climbing up in Lynne Ingalls front-yard cumquat tree in northwest Tucson – a tree her son had planted more than 30 years ago?

Harvesting fruit, of course.

On Saturday, Gamarelanbia (whose last name translates as "prophets of the moon") climbed up a ladder and, wearing a harvesting sack that looped around his left shoulder, proceeded to fill it with perfectly ripe and delicious cumquats.

Cumquats are "the little brother of the orange," according to Gamarelanbia. He and a small group of people rode up to a couple of households near Ina and Shannon roads and proceeded to harvest the citrus trees growing in two Northwest yards.

The group is called the Iskashitaa Refugee Harvesting Network. The word Iskashitaa means "working cooperatively together."

Barbara Eiswerth is the director and founder of the refugee harvesting network.

"I speak food," Eiswerth said. "Our group is the only one in the nation that has fused welcoming refugees and harvesting.

"Food is a common denominator among all cultures. Harvesting food is a concept that the refugees are familiar with. The food that we harvest is divided up in three ways: some of it is taken home, some of it is donated and some of it is sold. We recently filled two 18-wheeler trucks with harvested food and donated it to the Community Food Bank."

Last Saturday, Eiswerth and Natalie Brown, community liaison for Iskashitaa, came with refugees from Sudan, Somalia, Bhutan and other countries, along with volunteers from Catalina Foothills High School and college students to pick fruit from the citrus trees of two Northwest-side homeowners.

"The cumquats would have fallen on the ground and just gone to waste," said homeowner Ingalls.

"I don't like to waste things," said homeowner Ruth Denholtz, watching people harvest her lemon and grapefruit trees. "It helps me out, too. Anytime you can help people with something you don't need, it's a good thing."

The group worked quickly, cooperatively and efficiently. Some climbed ladders, some reached under the tree and others took long-handled fruit pickers to reach the fruit on the top. In short order, crates of lemons and grapefruits were filled.

"A refugee is a person who has fled their home country due to persecution or fear of persecution because of their religion, ethnicity or political activity," explains Natalie Brown. She has experience working with AIDS projects in the United States, Mexico and Tanzania, and points out there are three refugee resettlement agencies in Tucson.

Qamar collects lemons growing near the bottom and that have fallen down under the tree. She is from Somalia and her family fled during the war. Thirteen-year-old Fahima is from Sudan. She easily picks up a crate full of lemons and carries it, balancing the load atop her head. Lun Xu is tall; he can reach the higher areas easily. Sanz Ghalay, from Bhutan, reaches toward the top with a long-handled pole that has a basket on the end.

Benjamin Matiella is a volunteer from Catalina Foothills High School. He is considering an Eagle Scout project with the Fruit Harvesters Network. Jena Decker and Talia Chonover are college students on winter break.

Harvesting and saving food that would otherwise go to waste is just one of the benefits of the harvesting network. The refugees learn English, life skills, how to navigate through the city, friendship with each other and Americans, physical activity and better nutrition, according to Eisworth.

"By donating much of the food that is picked to organizations like the Food Bank or the Gospel Rescue Mission, they are giving back to the community right away," she said. Anyone interested in being a fruit donor can call (520) 440-0100, or e-mail harvest@fruitmappers.org. More information about Iskashitaa and a catalog of items the group creates and sells, such as marmalade, mesquite flour, prickly pear vinegar and harvesting sacks, can be viewed at www.fruitmappers.org

Within an hour, the trees are stripped bare of fruit and the filled crates are loaded into the back of a truck.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Approaching her two year anniversary as a volunteer, Joanne Finch’s list of accomplishments and experiences could fill the page. She’s assisted in nearly every program, interacted with hundreds of refugee clients, and practically knows all the Department of Economic Services employees by name. But her commitment to refugees extends beyond the walls of the IRC and into the community; in fact it was at her local church where Joanne’s eyes first were opened to the plight of the refugees living all around her. Encouraging each other along the way, many of her fellow members at Christ Church United Methodist have also become tireless supporters of refugee rights and well-being, shown most clearly in their partnership with Goshen Ministries, an African congregation which includes many IRC clients.

Most Challenging: Learning how to say “No” in order to promote client independence.

Most Pleasant: Working on Financial Literary with Lisa at the IRC.

Most Fulfilling: Witnessing the reunion of two close friends after years of separation.

Joanne is eager to share her father’s advice with anyone who will listen: “We have no right just to sit around and enjoy life.” Considering all the issues Joanne could have chosen to fulfill her father’s commission and all the organizations she could have worked with, we are so thankful that she is with us at IRC Tucson, creating opportunities for refugees to thrive in our community!